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HP Jetdirect - Printer Intermittently Loses Network Connectivity

Issue:

When a printer is connected to a network switch and it has not been used for a period of time, users may no longer be able to print. When in this condition, usually the printer also cannot be accessed through TELNET, FTP, or even through the Embedded Web Server. The printer even fails to respond to ping requests.

This issue is caused by the network switch disabling the port to which the printer is connected because it believes that the printer is no longer connected, due to a lack of traffic on that port. Most managed enterprise switches automatically disable a port if no network traffic has been generated on that port for a period of time, and will remove the MAC address of the device on the port from the switch's MAC table. This process is commonly referred to as Aging.

Solution

The following solutions can be utilized to address the issue depending on the customers environment and business needs.

1. SLP Keep Alive - The Jetdirect can be configured to generate an SLP (Service Locater Protocol) multicast packet at specified intervals through a telnet session. At the telnet prompt, enter the command slp-keep-alive:x where x is the numeric value of the specified time interval (in minutes) which is less than the switchs aging value. For example, if the switchs aging value is 10 minutes, then an SLP Keep Alive value of 8 could be used. In this case the telnet command would be slp-keep-alive:8. A value of zero will disable the SLP Keep Alive option.

2. Static MAC Table Entry - A static entry of the printers MAC address can be placed in the switchs MAC table for the port that the printer is connected to. A static entry will not be aged since aging only applies to dynamic entries that are created automatically when the switch senses a device on a port.